Rally held to prevent Taunton State Hospital closure

A massive crowd packed into Gardner Auditorium at the State House in Boston Thursday morning to protest the Patrick Administration’s plans to close Taunton State Hospital by the end of the year.

Marc Larocque

A massive crowd packed into Gardner Auditorium at the State House in Boston Thursday morning to protest the Patrick Administration’s plans to close Taunton State Hospital by the end of the year.

The rally, which was organized by state Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, and House Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, D-Somerset, featured speeches from legislators on both sides of the aisle, mental health advocates, nurses, workers, labor leaders and former patients of Taunton State.

The legislators announced they are introducing a budget amendment to prevent the administration from closing Taunton State Hospital without first conducting an independent, comprehensive study on the entire statewide mental health system and the potential effects of closing the Taunton facility.

The rally lasted nearly three hours and, on several occasions, it elicited raucous applause and chants of “stop and study.” About 150 nurses, workers, and supporters held signs that read, "Save Taunton State," and "I have a right to mental health services in my community," along with "Mental health care for all, make parity a reality" and "We need care in our communities, not in emergency rooms."

The rally received widespread support from legislators not only from the Taunton region, but from central Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands.

In addition to legislators, speaking at the rally was former mental health patients, relatives of patients, a district attorney, the mayors of Taunton and Worcester and mental health workers all speaking about the hardship that will be created by Patrick's plans to move Taunton State's 169 beds to a new Worcester State Hospital and a facility in Tewksbury.

The political leaders and protesters at the rally said that it was unfair to force patients into a new facility, causing a strain on their families who would have to travel more than 55 miles to visit and participate in recovery. They said that without Taunton State, access to inpatient beds would worsen in the region, causing emergency rooms, acute care facilities and jails to become even more overloaded with patients who need mental health care.

"You are here today to stand up for individuals suffering from mental illness, people who have no voice for themselves, let us not forget that," said Senate Majority Whip Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester.

Chandler spoke about how there was no warning, "or even the most rudimentary of a process," for the "shortsighted decision" to close Taunton State. Chandler said Taunton State Hospital's future "deserves no less of a deliberative process" that went into the decision to build the new Worcester State Hospital, a process that she participated in.

Chandler said "the Senate as a whole" is committed to demanding a process to study before acting on Taunton State's future.

Pacheco addressed a Patrick administration statement released on Wednesday in defense of the plan to close Taunton State, about maintaining 626 beds statewide.

"They speak about the fact that in their opinion there will be no jobs lost, and we will have the same number of beds that we had last year, but what they don't say is the same number of beds we had last year is 114 beds short statewide of what DMH's own recommendation was," said Pacheco, referring to 2004 DMH inpatient study report prepared for legislators. Haddad did not attend due to the death of her father, but many speakers reminded the audience members to keep her family in their prayers.

State Rep. Keiko Orrall, R-Lakeville, pointed out that Republicans and Democrats, senators and representatives, all support the effort to keep Taunton State open. Orrall said the Patrick administration is the only governmental force that wants to close Taunton State.

Orrall appealed to common sense, saying that closing Taunton State would not improve care, and that, according the administration, it would admittedly not save any money. In fact, according to Orrall, the administration said it would cost $5 million to transition beds from Taunton to Worcester and Tewksbury.

"We had a meeting with the powers that be to talk about the issues, and we asked the tough questions," Orrall said. "One of the questions I asked, if this was such a good idea, do we have a cost savings? The answer was, no. There is no cost savings to this initiative. So then I asked, 'Why are we doing it?' There is no community support for this. There is no cost savings. In fact, they say we are going to be spending $5 million on the transition to the Worcester facility. That is not a common sense idea."

Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter also spoke out, saying the closing of Taunton State will make the work of law enforcement more difficult in southeastern Massachusetts.

"What happens to the patients when mental health is not adequately funded?" Sutter said. "We know what happens, don't we? Those individuals are much more likely to get involved in crime and inflict harm on others and themselves. And that's why it is so clear that mental health needs to be adequately funded so my job as district attorney is an easier and less painful one."

Sutter commended the protesters for their attentiveness and enthusiasm. "Take this energy that is just so obvious in this room, take this passion that is so palpable, and turn it into action in the halls of Beacon Hill, not just today, but everyday until June 30 when that budget is decided, and you will win," he said.

Lillian Bates, of Taunton, who works as an attendant at Taunton State, said the protest is all about the clients and their families.

"It's all about the clients," Bates said. "Their families should not have to go to Worcester to visit them. We are here for the client, and client only."

Taunton's Dawn Martin, who works as a cook at Taunton State, said "for the families to have to go even further, some won't be able to make it, and it's very important for the clients' treatment for the families to be involved."

Karen Coughlin, a nurse at Taunton State and vice president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said that closing the facility without a full study of the mental health "crisis" in the state "goes beyond an issue of funding and finances," adding that "this is a moral and ethical issue of human rights and common decency."

A woman with a son at Taunton State and another with an aunt at Taunton State each spoke about the hardship of shipping beds to Worcester and Tewksbury would have on their loved ones and the strain it would have on their families.

Mary Clements and Timothy Grabosky, two former patients at Taunton State, each spoke fondly about the mental health facility and pointed out the importance of having it within the southeastern Massachusetts community.

"I would not be standing here today if it weren't for Taunton State Hospital," Grabosky said.

Grabosky referred to the Patrick administration's assertion that beds are being transferred to Worcester because the new, cutting edge facility that was built there.

"A substantial part of my recovery was the modernized, and not antiquated treatment that I received at Taunton State Hospital," he said. "We have a right to mental health services in our community."